The Very Fine Line Between Love and Hate
by touchtheskyx
Summary: Sirius and James make a bet. Upon discovering this, Lily and Mary make their own. Somewhere between the obsessions, sarcasm and nudity, can old feelings change? JPLE SBMM
1. Sarcasm and Sexiness

**AN:** Well, we'll see how this goes. I have yet to finish an entire story, but oh well. I'm going to try and bring alot of Mary MacDonald into this story. It's their seventh year, which means JPLE later on, and SBMM (in my opinion, they belonged together :)).

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**The (Very) Fine Line Between Love and Hate  
****Chapter One: Sarcasm and Sexiness**

"Oh, Lilykins!" James said in a singsong voice. The redhead infront of him twitched slightly but didn't turn around, just continued cutting her roots into tiny, perfect sized pieces.

"Lily flower!"

"What?" she snapped.

" I just thought you might like to know that there's a Hogsmeade weekened next weekened."

"And why would I want to know that?" she asked impatiently, though she knew exactly what was coming next.

"Because you'll be coming with me, and you'll need plenty of time to decide what to wear on those nice legs of yours. The skirt is my favorite, but..."

"Is there a problem, Mr Potter?" Slughorn asked, coming over to the table he and Sirius shared. He had not even started to prepare his ingredients.

"Of course not, professor," James said.

"And Black, tolerant as Miss MacDonald is, I'm sure those flying bits of paper aren't doing much for her concentration. Get to work."

Sirius, who had indeed been chucking balled up pieces of paper at the back of her head, shrugged and pulled out his own roots to cut. James was secretly glad that it was not a partner assignment, since Sirius was chopping his root so distractedly that the size of the pieces ranged from a centimeter to two inches.

By the end of the class there was a sticky blue substance smeared on the floor and a putrid smell of dirty socks hanging in the air. Judging by the fact that the smell was much worse on his side of the room, James deducted that Sirius' miscut roots were behind the odor.

"Ah, Miss Evans, by far the best," Slughorn said proudly while Lily tried not to look too smug. "You, I believe, were the only one in this class to properly complete your Draught of Living Death. To the rest of you, I would like an essay on the proper brewing of the Draught. To be handed in friday. You are dismissed."

Everybody rose quickly to gather their ingredients and were out the door within seconds. Unfortunately, the odor didn't seem to want to leave.

"Hey Mary..."

"Shove off, Black," Mary MacDonald said, shooting him a blazing look she strode past them, flicking her long brown hair back and wrinkling her nose at the smell.

"Oh, she so digs me, Prongsie, me and my sexiness," Sirius said, turning to his friend as they walked through the hall to lunch.

"Why, because she called you Black? I'm not sure where you get these notions, Pads, but if someone calling you by your last name is a surefire way of telling they're in love with you, then I guess you and Slughorn could have a little something something going on..." Sirius punched him hard on the arm, and James winced as he took a seat at the Gryffindor table. "What? It could be kinda hott... I guess if you go for that kind of thing."

"Oh Lord help me, rid my mind of these terrible, terrible images..."

"You must really like beer bellies, Paddy..."

"Being forced to think these things is sinful."

"Love is not a sin, my good fellow..."

"If you don't shut the fuck up right now I have a good many ideas as to where this fork could go." He held up the polished silver fork and waved it threateningly.

"Okay, okay," James said, holding up his hands in surrender. "To tell the truth the images weren't much pleasanter in my mind..."

"But she soo has to like me," he said, stabbing at his potatoes.

"Sluggy?"

"Mary!"

"Padfoot, oh Padfoot, however did thy head become so large," said James. "Not every girl is in love with you."

"Hypocrite! What about you and yonder red headed ball of fury? But of course, Lily Evans must be an exception."

"Oh, your sarcasm kills me. But didn't I tell you? We're going to be married and have five kids named Billy, Milly, Philly, Dilly..."

"You would be a cruel father," Remus said, settling onto the bench beside James. "You name your kid Dilly and he will never have a single friend."

"Don't be a spoil sport, Moon, you're ruining one of his Lily fantasies."

"Oh, sorry. I should have known not to intrude when I saw the dazed look on his eyes and the drool running down his chin."

Sirius laughed loudly as James, snapping out of his reverie, wiped his chin on his sleeve only to find that there had been no drool. "Oh, ha ha," James said. "You just wait, Sirius, when I'm going out with Lily and you're still hopelessly chasing MacDonald we'll see who's laughing."

"I have a way bigger chance of getting MacDonald then you do Evans! Come on, you'd think if she wanted to go out with she would have done the first time you asked her?"

James stuck his tongue out. "Maybe I've grown on her."

"Maybe she's grown to loathe you even more over the past few years."

"Maybe you should stop talking because Mary hates you more than Lily hates me."

"Oh yeah?"

"Do I, perhaps, sense a bet coming on?"

"Perhaps you do, dear Moony, perhaps you do."

"Is that a challenge?"

"Must be," Sirius said. "Let's see... I'll bet you that I can get MacDonald to go out with me before you can get Lily. And it has to be done before Christmas break."

James seemed to fight with himself for a minute. "Deal," he said, shaking Sirius' outstretched hand.

"What's the wager?" asked Peter, who had sat down beside Sirius moments before.

Sirius looked thoughtful. "Okay James, if I win, you will stand up in the middle of breakfast and confess your undying love to Professor McGonagall, via poem."

"Oh that's how you want to play it? Then, same for you, only it'll be Slughorn, and yours well be a confession through song and dance."

"Oh, and its a tough wager on both sides! Should be interesting to see how this one works out," Remus said, commentator-style.

"Keep up the commentary, Moon, and I'll chew up your shoes again," Sirius warned him seriously.

"But these ones are new!"

---

"They are definately up to something," Lily said.

"Who?"

"Potter and Black. Who else?"

Mary pulled a face. "Why do you say that?"

"They keep looking down at us... then looking away really fast. At first I thought it was just Sirius, and that's obvious because he's basically in love with you..."

"What?" Mary said loudly and a few people turned to stare.

"Oh come on Mary, it's so obvious. Sirius Black doesn't waste his precious thoroughly self-absorbed time throwing little bits of paper at someone he doesn't like."

Mary rolled her eyes, turned slightly pink and changed the subject. "Oh well, that doesn't mean they're planning something."

"They're always planning something," Lily said fairly. "Not that I care at all... Potter's a complete toerag, and Black's...

"Sexy."

"What?!"

"Sexy, but a total ass," Mary covered. "Even you can't deny it. You're not blind."

"No, I guess I'll give him that. But anyways, we better go, Charms starts in a few minutes."

"Yay," Mary. "Another class with Black. I'm practically faint with excitement."

**---**

**AN:** Not very long, I know. But it was just the introduction. The other chapters will (hopefully) be longer. I can only see this being a ten chapter fic, but it could go longer. I'll update whenever I can.

PS; review review review :)


	2. Charms and the Charmer

**AN:** It's been a week since I've updated because I was grounded for a few days (haha). Finally, an update! (PS; I have 8 alerts and 6 reviews for this. It doesn't work out! Review, please!)

**mustardgirl:** Nope, you're not making things up. She was mentioned in one of the books... I think Deathly Hallows? Anyways, I'm pretty sure it was in one of Snape's pencieve memories, when Lily was talking about one of his Death Eater friends. For some reason, I just had a really good image of what she would be like. I'm also gonna throw Marlene McKinnon in here, just for kicks. She was a member of the first order, and I might put her with Lupin (yeah yeah, he belongs with Tonks, but she's younger! He hasn't met her yet!)

**The (Very) Fine Line Between Love and Hate  
****Chapter Two: Charms and the Charmer**

Lily and Mary (who was mumbling under her breath - 'Black? Me? Hell no...') walked into the classroom just as the bell rang. Lily felt a tiny twinge of mingled smugness and annoyance as Sirius and James flung themselves into the room, late, followed by a slightly more composed Lupin and a dumbstruck-looking-as-per-usually Peter. Sometimes she felt bad for the guy. Perhaps Potter paid him to follow him around and kiss his feet.

He gave an exaggerated wink as he passed her and she rolled her eyes, equally as exaggeratedly. Having pulled himself together after their apparent mad dash to the classroom, Sirius was now walking in what he obviously intended to be a calm, cool manner (which, he pulled off quite well).

"Late again, boys," squeaked Flitwik.

"Sorry, professor," Remus said, and Lily shot him a quick smile. Why he ever hung out with such prat she could never figure out. Neither of the other boys said anything - their heads were pressed close together.

Lily shot Remus a 'what-the-hell-is-up-with-them' look and he shrugged back.

Flitwik gave a short beginning of class talk and set them to it - summoning and banishing cushions, something he had showed them in fifth year but insisted they review before NEWTs.

Lily rolled her eyes again. "Wish we didn't have to do this again... then again you did accidentally break my mirror last time you tried to summon your hair brush... hello... earth to Mary?" She waved her hand in front of her friend's face.

"What? Oh, yeah, I'd better practise..." she said distractedly and Lily followed her eyes to, who else, the black haired animal with his feet on his desk.

"Mary!" Lily kicked her from under the desk.

"Ow," she said, rubbing her leg.

"Work with me here!" Lily said. "We're supposed to hate them, remember?"

"I do!" Mary insisted. "I wasn't even looking at him, the pot plant behind him his really quite nice..."

---

"There she goes again!" Sirius said. "Looking right at me. You know, I'd say I've got this in the bag."

"Something tells me a girl like that isn't going to give in so easy," Remus said. "And they suspect something by the way. Lily's not stupid... if they find out you're betting on them, you'll both have some love confessions to make at the end of term. Not that I'm saying you have any chance as it is..."

"She's too smart for her own good, it's not like we're doing anything different than usual."

"Exactly. She knows how to tell when you're planning something, she's been dealing with your plans for more than six years now."

"Don't feign innocence, Loopy, you're the mastermind of most of our brilliant plans," James said, flicking his wand lazily and sending his cushion in the complete wrong direction and hitting Marlene McKinnon in the head.

"I merely finetune the details," he said lightly, banishing a cushion neatly into a box across the room. "You're doing the flick wrong, its more left than downwards," trying to show James how to do it properly.

James jerked his arm away. "I don't want you to show me how to do it," he said, as a cushion flew past him and landed nicely in the box. "Sorry, Moony my man, I love you and everything, but you just don't look the same in a skirt."

---

"Hey, Lily," James said, sliding into an empty spot beside her.

"Potter, what do you want?" she asked.

"Just to let you know that you look magnificent today," he said. "That skirt really does flatter you..."

"Oh, aren't you the charmer," Mary said.

He ignored her. "So I was thinking, I'm terrible at charms, and you're excellent, I mean, obviously, look at you. I was thinking, maybe..."

"No, no, and no," she said, summoning her cushion back from the box.

"How do you even know what I was going to say?"

She snorted. "Please. I'm not stupid you know..."

"So I've heard," he mumbled.

"Just give up, Potter," said Mary, who was still haiving troubled properly summoning her cushion without hitting something else along the way. "You're worse than Black," she said but faltered off and, catching Lily's eye, added, "and that's saying something."

Still looking suspiciously at her friend, who busied herself with retrieving her pillow from the floor, she said, "Go away, Potter. I'm not tutoring you, you're doing fine."

"If you call bringing injuries upon my fellow classmates fine, then I suppose..."

"Injuries? I saw you hit Marlene. You can't injure someone with a _pillow_."

"So you were looking at me!"

"I was looking at her."

"So you swing that way, do you? I suppose I could do threesomes..."

"Potter!"

"Lilykins!"

"LEAVE ME THE HELL ALONE!"

Everyone turned to stare at her as her face turned a deepening shade of red. "Sorry, professor," she said, and sat herself down in her seat. James smirked slightly and a few people laughed. Flitwik shook his head, chuckling quietly to himself. Unfortunately, the teachers along with most of the students in the school thought that, in the words of 'wise' Sirius Black, they should 'just get it on already'.

"You really ought to learn to control your temper," he said.

"You really ought to learn when to screw off," she said, careful to keep her voice down.

"Did I mention that you look incredibly sexy in that shirt..."

"Keep it in your pants, Potter," Mary said. "Come on, Lily, the bells about to ring..."

---

"So, how'd it go? Booked your tutoring sessions yet?" Sirius smirked.

"There'll be more than tutoring going on once she comes around," James said resolutely as they left the classroom a few minutes later. "Besides, you haven't even tried to make a move on MacDonald..."

"That's because she might very well make a move on me first," he said, grinning. Sure enough, Mary was looking over her shoulder at them, but as Sirius beamed at her she quickly turned away.

"And he competition heats up," Remus said, back in comentator mode, "with an unexpected twist of events from the opposing side..."

"Shoes, Lupin!"

"Okay, okay..."

**AN:** Ah. Another short one, sorry. I always have a really hard time writing long chapters. I think I'd rather have a short one instead of having it go on and on and on. I'll leave it at one idea, and move on with the next in the next chapter. REVIEW people, REVIEW :)


	3. All's Fair In Love And War

**AN:** I still have more alerts than reviews. Come on people! A couple words, that's all I ask. How am I supposed to improve if I don't know what I need to improve on? Good or bad, let me know what you think. Thanks, guys.

**The (Very) Fine Line Between Love and Hate  
****Chapter Three: All's Fair In Love And War**

"If Mary asks you out, it doesn't count, you know," James said as they headed back to the common room.

"You wouldn't be saying that if Lily looked like she might pull that with you," Sirius said. "Besides I'm not planning on letting her ask me out, it would ruin my image."

"What, your no-fail record of being the person who asks them out AND the person who dumps them?"

"Exactly," Sirius said, "Flobberworm."

"What?" Peter asked confusedly.

"The password, dumb ass."

"Oh..."

"Anyway, as I was saying... it's not quite the same," Sirius said as they climbed through the portrait hole. "Because this time, I'm not planning on dumping her once I've got her roped in to my Sirius charm."

Remus and James exchanged glances, rolling their eyes.

---

"Potter is such an arrogant-" she threw down one of her cards "-ass. Who the hell does he think he is... and what, did he honestly think I'd agree to tutor him I mean... Mary, it's your turn, are you even listening to me?"

"Yeah, yeah, he's a toerag," she agreed, putting down a card of her own and glancing towards the entrance shiftily.

"Well, speak of the devil, not to mention the devil's advocates," Lily said as James and Sirius traipsed into the room, followed faithfully by Remus and Peter.

"Well look who it is," Sirius said loudly, and the four of them walked over to the sofa where Lily and Mary were deep into a game of Exploding Snap. "Hey, MacDonald," he said, sitting down beside her.

"Hey Siri-Black," she said, fidgeting with a piece of long brown hair that had fallen out of her ponytail. Sirius smirked - almost knowingly, Lily thought. She was, not for the first time that day, questioning her friend and the truth in her hatred of Sirius Black.

"So, I-" he started.

"Did you know," James said loudly, "That Sirius wet the bed until second year?"

Sirius' face turned faintly pink in a blush that few people had ever seen. "And that," James continued, "He practises his kissing techniques on his pillow?"

"Thanks, James," Sirius said sarcastically, in an attempt at bravado.

"And that he..."

"Oh screw this... you better run, Potter... remember that fork from lunch? Yeah, I thought so... I've come up with a few more ideas of where I could stick it..." he jumped off the couch and James tore off up the boys staircase, followed closely by Sirius who shoved a first year boy out of his way.

"What the hell..." Mary started.

Remus laughed awkwardly. "They're not usually this weird, they're just..."

"Being themselves?"

"..caught up," he finished.

"Caught up in..."

"Nothing," he said quickly.

"Ha! I knew they were up to something," Lily said triumphantly.

"Yes, I did tell him..."

'Tell him what?"

"Nothing."

"You never were a good liar, Lupin," she said.

He raised his eyebrows and kept his mouth firmly shut, looking at her challengingly. Lily opened her mouth once, then whipped her head around so quickly that she kinked her neck. Rubbing it, she said sweetly, "Peter.. Pete, what's going on?"

"I.. um... they... they may have made a bet that might have been about you two and who they could get to go out with them first," Peter said very quickly and Remus slapped his forhead. "But you didn't hear it from me," he added hastily and Remus rolled his eyes.

"Suck up," he muttered.

"Come on, she was looking at me with those eyes, you know the eyes, Moony," Peter whined.

"Yeah, I know the eyes... I have fallen pray to the eyes more than once. Come on Pete, if we get up there now we might be in time to see where he ends up sticking that fork..."

"Ahah!" Lily said, a triumphant look gleaming in her eyes as the pair left up the staircase. "I _told_ you..."

"So they made a bet on us," she said, shrugging. "Big deal." She looked odd, as though she was bursting to say something but forcing it back.

Lily looked from her friend to the stairs and something clicked in her mind. But she could not let it happen... they would be around so much more, and she had about as much Black as she could take, not to mention Potter... She got a sudden stroke of inspiration and, grinning somewhat devilishly, she said, "The only way I can see to make their bet fall through... is to make a little bet ourselves."

"I don't like the sound of that," Mary said. "Lily Evans does not often make plans, and when she does, I try to stay well out of the way..."

"Oh stop talking about me like I'm not right here," she snapped. "No, what do you say we make ourselves a wager: First person to accept their proposal loses," she said. "Unless you like him or something..."

"What? Pshh, no, what makes you say that, I absolutely do not, will not, will never, ever like him," she said firmly. "No. Absolutely not..."

"Okay then, is it a deal?" she asked. Mary's eyes widened and she glanced back at the staircase before taking Lily's hand and shaking it.

"Deal," she gulped.

---

Mary went over the bet in her head. Okay, so she had told Lily she didn't like Black, because she didn't...

Oh, who was she kidding, she was practically in love with the guy. But she couldn't have told her, Lily hated the pair of them, and she wouldn't ruin their friendship over some stupid, cocky, arrogant (sexy) guy.

They had not set the wager though, so maybe if she did accept then nothing bad would happen... except for the destruction of everything she and Lily had been building up for years.

Ah well, she thought. At least now she had a solid reason to say no when he finally got the question out...

---

Lily glanced over at Mary. Was it cruel that she had noticed her friends feelings and immediately tried to sabotage them.

Of course not, a voice told her. All's fair in love and war.

And between the two bets, this promised to be a combination of both.

---

**AN:** Well, it's official. I am virtually incapable of writing a long chapter. This one is even shorter than the first. Oh well, review anyways. It'll make my day :)


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